“Whenever I want to read a book I know will be good, I go to Silvia Moreno-Garcia.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.
So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.
Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.
But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.
Before the curtain comes down, there will be tears and tragedy aplenty in this sexy Technicolor saga.
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6 books in catalog
Re-imagining classic horror, dark fantasy, and historical noir through Mexican folklore and history, speculative fiction has found new depth in books like Mexican Gothic. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Mexican-Canadian author, editor, and publisher whose versatile bibliography spans a wide array of subgenres, from 1950s jazz-infused urban fantasy to 1920s Mayan mythology.
Known for combining distinct period settings with gothic atmosphere and cultural heritage, her work has earned major speculative fiction accolades, including the World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy awards.
Born on April 25, 1981, in Baja California, Mexico, Moreno-Garcia grew up in various locations throughout the country. Her parents worked at radio stations, surrounding her with extensive vinyl record collections, while stories from her great-grandmother in Hidalgo inspired an early appreciation for oral storytelling. After discovering classic horror literature through Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft as a child, she moved to Canada in 2004, later settling in Vancouver and earning a Master of Arts in Science and Technology Studies from the University of British Columbia.
Describing herself as "Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination," Moreno-Garcia began publishing short fiction in the mid-2000s and expanded into editing and publishing through Innsmouth Free Press. She edited notable horror anthologies, including Cthulhurotica and the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (released in the United States as Cthulhu's Daughters). She published her debut novel, Signal to Noise, in 2015, establishing a pattern of exploring a distinct subgenre with each new project.
Moreno-Garcia's approach to writing is marked by genre fluidity, deliberately shifting styles, eras, and narrative structures between books rather than repeating established templates. Her narratives frequently reframe standard Western literary motifs—such as Lovecraftian mythos, vampire lore, or mad scientist tropes—through Mexican history, mythology, and regional folklore.
Central themes across her catalog include the impacts of colonialism, social class divisions, family secrets, and cultural displacement. Grounded in meticulous historical research, her stories balance vivid atmospheric world-building with nuanced characterization across various historical periods, including Jazz Age Mexico, the 1950s silver-mining estates, and 1990s Mexico City.
